Singapore Q4 hiring outlook falls to 20%, below global average

Hiring optimism here continued to weaken overall, with the net employment outlook declining again to reach 20 per cent for the upcoming fourth quarter of 2025, according to a survey.

- Tay Hong Yi

This result of a quarterly poll by recruitment firm ManpowerGroup is the joint-lowest figure in over three years and 3 percentage points below the corresponding global average across 42 markets, in a sign of the global trade fog bearing down hard on the Republic.

Net employment outlook is a measure of hiring optimism, defined as the percentage of companies surveyed that intend to take on new staff, minus the percentage that intend to downsize, in the upcoming quarter.

Almost half of the 524 employers here polled in July plan to maintain current staffing levels, while 37 per cent plan to hire, 17 per cent anticipate a decrease in their staffing levels and 1 per cent of them are unsure of their plans, according to the results released on Sept 9.

With a net employment outlook of 48 per cent, the transport, logistics and automotive industry bucked the trend to be the only one with a net employment outlook up from both the previous quarter, and the same time in 2024.

The industry overtook health-care and life sciences, which recorded a net employment outlook of 38 per cent, to be the one with the most strongly positive outlook out of nine segments.